MeeGo on wheels

With few exceptions, the product talk around the upcoming MeeGo mobile operating system has highly-focused on netbooks and cell phones, and understandably so. Intel’s legacy contribution to the joint effort, Moblin, was designed for the former while Nokia’s equivalent, Maemo, has been the foundation for the latter.

When computers first found their way into cars, it was in the form of electronic management of combustion control, braking and other mechanical functions. Flaky at first due to the extreme environmental conditions and the immaturity of the industry, these systems are now taken for granted.

a non-profit industry alliance committed to driving the broad adoption of an In-Vehicle Infotainment (IVI) reference platform. GENIVI will accomplish this by aligning requirements, delivering reference implementations, offering certification programs and fostering a vibrant open source IVI community. Our work will result in shortened development cycles, quicker time-to-market, and reduced costs for companies developing IVI equipment and software.

From a practical standpoint, Intel has the lead here based on its embedded systems work described above. But Nokia’s expertise in mobile communications will be highly critical in making this venture work. In other words, this pairing looks more ideal all the time.

Competition

Nokia’s dalliance with N800s in a Mustang can’t touch what Microsoft has done with Ford via SYNC. This popular solution has expanded its range beyond Microsoft’s own products to even include iPhone support. However, with it being a closed system I can’t see SYNC coming close to the potential that GENIVI offers, especially given that latter’s membership (more below).

Possibilities

Some time back I envisioned an internet tablet ecosystem where Nokia’s “connecting people” mantra truly manifested. I imagined (with something like the N800 in mind) a web-enabled touchscreen device that would be my companion throughout the day, in various use cases: sitting on my desk autopaging through an electronic photo album, firing off an alarm to wake me, informing me of appointments for the day, guiding my vehicle to those appointments, alerting me to items and events of interest as I navigated, and serving up detailed information on and around my destinations as I walked that final distance to them. For those unwilling to live with the bulk of an N800, I pictured the tablet staying in the car but seamlessly handing off its accumulated info to a cell phone of choice to serve in that last mile.

I can see IVI enabling the automotive aspect of this scenario, and then some. Automobiles stand to finally fulfill fantastic visions dating back decades. This goes beyond the usual items of infotainment, too– with these systems in place, semi-automated vehicle driving gets a great deal closer to reality.

But as rich an experience as we are poised to receive, there will come some pitfalls. Already cell phones are being increasingly targetted as devices of dangerous distraction in automotive mishaps. More and more municipalities in the US alone are passing laws and regulations geared toward discouraging “driving and dialing”. When our cars truly become our home away from home, as advents like GENIVI will enable, sticky legal issues will likely increase. It will be up to the solution providers to not only follow relevant laws but also act responsibly in general while adding to the mobile infotainment experience.

Going forward

MeeGo’s open source nature vis-a-vis netbooks and cell phones is one thing; to pull off an open source automotive infotainment paradigm is something on another scale entirely. If someone had suggested such a thing to me a few years ago I would have scoffed… but reading through the list of GENIVI Alliance members (which includes not only industry giants Intel, Nokia and Alpine but also Garmin, GM, Mitsubishi, Nissan, Navteq, Pioneer, Peugot, Renault and more) leads me to believe Microsoft will soon be facing more than it can handle in this space.

In automotive parlance, GENIVI has traction, and MeeGo is the vehicle that will provide the spark. Developers, get on now or get left behind!

I would say that a MeeGo powered phone should be able to talk to a MeeGo in-dash unit. Syncing contact lists for GPS lookups, internet connection sharing, browser histories, etc. Same for the MeeGo tablet you keep in your backpack.

It hit me the other day that we’re looking at the eventuality of content sharing BETWEEN CARS. Automobiles talking to each other on the road! Couple these IVI systems with vehicular radar + GPS and so many possibilties open up.

Reference the Nokia in 2015 video and the latest Star Trek movie, both show Nokia in a auto as you describe. And with the move to IP-based cellular networks, I’m not sure that the pitfalls will be that bad, they might prove to be catalysts to the kind of innovation that will make this kind of mobile-computing possible.

At least, that’s what I’m hoping for by the time I upgrade from my N97 to whatever’s next ;)

i found myself wondering about its potential as a HTPC base. But then i read that the current binary release was very limited in its supported hardware. Thats the kind of current meego activity that makes me wonder about the “openness” of the project, in the social sense. Can the community make use of some kind of compile farm or similar to rework meego ivi into something for more generic hardware?